


Night Terrors

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Redeemed Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23505529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Rose is used to sleeping in rooms with a lot of other people, though not usually with other people who've tried to murder everyone she's ever known.
Relationships: Ben Solo | Kylo Ren & Rose Tico
Comments: 12
Kudos: 28
Collections: Party in the GFFA: Star Wars Flash Exchange 2020





	Night Terrors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frozensea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensea/gifts).



It took a long time for Rose to get used to sharing the barracks with someone who's tried to murder everyone she knows. A lot of people transferred to the other bunkroom, overcrowding what was already too tight quarters. Kaydel stayed here, and Rose set herself in a pointless, one-sided competition with her for lack of better hobbies. She's staying, too, despite the mass murderer in the bunk three beds away each night.

She's lived in group settings all her life and she's used to various night sounds and terrors. The orphanage where she and Paige spent five years was the worst, with the other children sobbing themselves to sleep, or screaming at nightmares reliving their most terrible days. Their caretakers were kind, and Rose knows it could have been far worse for all of them had they been otherwise, but kindness couldn't prevent the ever-present sorrows that had brought them all to this new, sad home. The Resistance barracks feature less crying and more muffled sounds of sex, both solo and shared. The night terror levels haven't changed.

It's only fair that someone who caused these terrors to become real for others has to live with his nightmares now. Rose doesn't care whose son he is, or how many Jedi vouch for him. Kylo Ren was the root of too much pain in the Resistance. Ben or whoever he claims to be can live with that on his soul and his mind, and if he can't, he wouldn't be the first member of the Resistance to find a faster, private end to the war.

She doesn't care.

She doesn't.

Rose has enough troubles of her own, enough regrets, and enough losses. She might have a bad habit of picking up the sorrows of her friends, but that's leftover from the orphanage, when she and Paige aged into being the older ones who comforted the littler children new to the hard life. She doesn't need to comfort a grown man with blood on his hands.

When she goes to rouse him from another nightmare, she tells herself it's to quiet the room. Kaydel needs her sleep as much as Rose does, and the rest. He wakes with wary, unsure eyes on her, and for a moment she's ten years old, waking a three year old who's already seen too much, and who's been awakened to terrible things before. Kylo Ren has done terrible things. Ben has watched them happen in the night. Rose knows that look.

"Roll over," she whispers to him. He obeys without thinking, long body huddled under the thin blanket, the same as the rest of them use. He might be the General's son, but the only perk that's buying him is his life.

Rolling stops the snorers. Nightmares aren't as easily settled by re-positioning. He'll fall asleep again, fall into his dark place again.

Rose makes the decision without giving herself time to consider more. She pushes him to the far side of his bunk and climbs in next to him, grabbing half the blanket. There's no room for distance or privacy as her body presses against his back. "Go to sleep," she tells him, and closes her eyes.

This is just to help the others sleep better, she tells herself. It doesn't mean anything. But the rest of the night is quiet, and she's glad.


End file.
